Medicaid
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Hispanic Children’s Coverage: Steady Progress, but Disparities Remain
The United States has cut the rate of uninsured children in half since 1997, due, in large part, to Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). A combination of children’s eligibility expansions through these two programs, as well as state and federal efforts to conduct outreach and simplify enrollment in both programs, has led…
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What Do Elections Mean for Medicaid Prospects?
No one would say it was a good night for the prospects of Medicaid expansion. But I would argue the landscape didn’t really change all that much. One clear loss for the issue was Governor LePage’s victory in Maine –a state where he has repeatedly vetoed the expansion. And Arkansas results – especially in the…
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Children’s Coverage at a Crossroads: Progress Slows
In 2013, for the first time in recent history, the uninsured rate for children did not significantly decline from the previous year, remaining just above seven percent. Yet in the past five years, the number of uninsured children declined substantially from just under 6.9 million to just over 5.2 million in large part due to…
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How Will Election Results Impact Florida’s Medicaid Expansion Prospects?
As I write this on Election Day, Florida’s gubernatorial race between incumbent Governor Scott and former Governor Crist appears to be one of the closest in the country. And Florida keeps popping up on lists of states for which the outcome of the Governor’s race will make a big difference. Maybe, but I have my…
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Analysis: 3 Million Would Gain Coverage if ALL States Expanded Medicaid
By Sean Miskell On the eve of a midterm election that has seen state policy makers reconsidering their opposition to Medicaid expansion, an analysis conducted by the New York Times finds that 3 million more would gain coverage if all states expanded Medicaid. This finding highlights the importance role that state policy makers can play…
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Extending Iowa’s Waiver Request Would Set a Bad Precedent for Other States Considering Medicaid Expansion
By Sean Miskell As we near the end of the first year of expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, it is also time to revisit state proposals to alter their Medicaid programs through Section 1115 Medicaid waivers. Last week, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Georgetown CCF, and 20 other national and state…
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No Tricks Here, CMS Treats States with Permanent Enhanced Funding for Medicaid Eligibility and Enrollment Systems
There could hardly be a sweeter treat for state Medicaid agencies than to learn that CMS is proposing to the make permanent the enhanced federal funding match of 90 percent for Medicaid eligibility and enrollment systems and a 3-year extension on certain cost-allocation requirements. It was a big deal when CMS first proposed the 90/10…
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Arkansas Proposes Unwelcome Changes to the Private Option
Last week, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Georgetown CCF and 15 other national and state groups submitted comments to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services outlining concerns with proposed changes to the state’s Section 1115 Medicaid waiver which authorizes the state’s Medicaid expansion – known as the “private option.” We expressed…
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Rural Hospital Closures: Tracking Tool Shows Impact in States Reluctant to Expand Medicaid
At the University of North Carolina’s Rural Health Research Program, Director Mark Holmes and colleagues are tracking the increasing numbers of rural hospital closures across the United States with this dynamic map. As part of this work the Rural Health program has also looked at the impact on rural populations nationwide of state decisions not…
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Tracking Medicaid Enrollment and Spending
By Joe Touschner Each year, the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured reports on the findings from its survey of budgets and enrollment among state Medicaid programs. (The budget survey is not to be confused with the Kaiser-Georgetown CCF survey of Medicaid and CHIP eligibility and enrollment policies coming in January). This year’s edition…
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New Kaiser Survey Finds More States Intend to Extend Primary Care Rate Increase
By Sophia Duong In a previous post, I summarized the initiatives taken by Congress and states to extend the payment rate increase for primary care services, set to expire on December 31, 2014. At the time, six states were reported to finance the primary care bump through 2015 with their own state funds. Now, Kaiser…
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School-Aged Children Benefit from ACA “Stairstep” Provision
One piece of the ACA that has received less attention than others (outside CCF at least!) is the requirement for states to align eligibility for all children under 19, also referred to as the elimination of “stairstep” eligibility for kids. A recent USA Today article focused new attention on this provision. Under the ACA states…
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States Putting In Place Delayed Medicaid Expansions Must Make Good Faith Effort to Ensure Nobody is Left Behind
Federal approval last month of Pennsylvania’s new plan to expand Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on January 1, 2015 has brought urgency to this obscure but important issue. States that decide to expand Medicaid where the date of expansion occurs after the original January 1, 2014 ACA Medicaid and health marketplace start…
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Wisconsin Loses Out on At Least $300 Million Due to Governor’s Badgercare Decision
Wisconsin is the only state in the nation to have gone down a very shortsighted and bizarre path with respect to the Medicaid expansion – one that has resulted in serious fiscal challenges for the state. So what did Wisconsin do? Well, in an attempt to “stick it to the man”, Governor Walker said no…
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Uninsured Children More Likely to Face Access and Affordability Barriers, Less Likely to Receive Preventive Care
Did you know that uninsured children are nearly 27 percentage points less likely than insured children to have received a routine checkup in the last year? That was one of the findings in a report CCF released with the Urban Institute earlier this month. Now most Say Ahhh! readers won’t find that statistic all that surprising…
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Public Comments on Indiana’s HIP 2.0 Medicaid Expansion Proposal Submitted!
For those of you interested in the nitty gritty around pending Medicaid Section 1115 waiver proposals we have some more reading material for you. Last night was the deadline for submitting public comments to federal CMS on Indiana’s pending HIP 2.0 proposal. It’s good news that Indiana is serious about accepting the federal funds and…
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Medicaid expansion and the “policy window of opportunity”
Recently I wrote here about the changing political and policy climate around Medicaid expansion and Dr. Liane Wong followed up with an overview of the role of child advocates in working around the same issue, highlighting a report by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Dr. Wong’s piece reminded me of some basic theory any…
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CDC Survey Finds Uninsured Rate Drops for Adults, Remains Steady for Kids
In the rapidly changing health coverage landscape, getting an accurate snapshot of what’s happening to uninsured rates is a bit like trying to get a good photo of your new puppy sitting and smiling for the camera. Today, we got one of the most rigorous and timely snapshots that we can possibly get from a…
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Data Debrief: Overview of the ACS and CPS
On Tuesday, September 16th, the US Census Bureau will issue two reports: Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2013 and Income and Poverty in the United States: 2013. The former analyzes data from the American Community Survey (ACS) and the latter uses the Current Population Survey (CPS). With the release of the most recent…
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Advocating for Children’s Coverage Under the Medicaid Expansion Option
By Dr. Liane Wong, Health Leader and Program Officer, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation For those up-to-date Say Ahhh! readers, Adam Searing recently wrote about the more compelling reasons – namely $423.6 billion federal dollars plus billions of uncompensated care funds to hospitals – why it’s getting much harder for Governors to turn down Medicaid…